MEMS acceleration switch capable of increasing threshold acceleration

A micromachined acceleration switch capable of increasing the threshold acceleration is proposed. Comb drive actuators were used to tune the threshold acceleration. The acceleration switch was successfully fabricated using a silicon-on-glass process. Switching characteristics were measured in a centrifugal chamber and a turn-on response time was 0.38 ms. The threshold acceleration was 11 g without a tuning voltage, and it was effectively increased up to 30 g with a tuning voltage of 30 V at the comb actuators, which is about 270% increased threshold compared to the initial threshold with zero tuning voltage.